The One Year War
Mobile Suit Gundam's plot started in the 9th month into the war, while the prologue tell of the events of what happened earlier. Later publications tell of the full story, about how Zeon dropped a Space colony onto Earth and during the process, killed half of the population of the whole Earth sphere, including the space colonies, which was retconned to be the One Week Battle and the civilian casualties estimated to be much higher(4.8~5 billion during the war and 3 billion after the war) during the war due to the aftermath of the disastrous event, just like the atomic bombs and communication interference by the introduction of Minovsky particle. Some of that story was later adapted into MS Igloo and several manga. The war came to an end when the Earth Federation finally gathered enough strength for a full counter attack, in which the few decisive battles were told in Mobile Suit Gundam as well.
The prologue of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 started from the end of the last battle in the One Year War, and explained the situation in the same world 3 years after the War, with rogue forces of the remnants of Zeon still lurking around and the Earth Federation still wanted to eliminate them.
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Famous quotes containing the words the one, year and/or war:
“Better and safer is an assured peace than a victory hoped for. The one is in your own power, the other is in the hands of the gods.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“Every year lays more earth upon us, which weighs us down from aerial regions, till we go under the earth at last.”
—E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)
“... it is a commonplace that men like war. For peace, in our society, with the feeling we have then that it is feeble-minded to strive except for one’s own private profit, is a lonely thing and a hazardous business. Over and over men have proved that they prefer the hazards of war with all its suffering. It has its compensations.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)